Panasonic Lumix Vario PZ 14-42/3.5-5.6 X G lens review by Ming Thein.

So, what happens when you put the 'X' on a consumer grade kit lens?

"Optically, the 14-42X is a bit of a surprise: it’s excellent, even used at maximum aperture. You don’t lose any sharpness close up, either. This is important seeing as anything much beyond f8 is severely diffraction limited on M4/3 cameras anyway due to the very small pixel pitch. Use this one wide open without issue, though stop down one stop to 5.6-8 to gain a very small improvement in the corners. There were two aspects of performance I found especially

impressive – very low CA, and impressive contrast (though microcontrast could be better). I’m guessing this has something to do with Panasonic’s Nano Coating, and the relatively simple (for a collapsing zoom) 9/8 design. Color rendition is neutral and saturated. There’s no point talking about bokeh, because on a lens like this, unless you’re shooting at minimum distance and wide open, you’re going to get almost no depth of field control anyway."

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For some reasons only known to Tamron's managers, the company chooses to enter the micro 4/3 format with a 14-150mm zoom, closely matching the popular Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 and the elder Panasonic Lumix G Vario HD 14-140mm f/4-5.8 ASPH MEGA OIS lenses.

Now, if they had bothered to shave a millimeter or two off the wide end, it would have been really exciting news, but as it stands now, the micro 4/3 mount is served by no less than 11 zoom lenses all sharing the 14mm wide end. Is there enough playing field for the New kid? . . . read more

As an aside, whilst the 12-35 comes with built in Panasonic Power OIS, I haven’t tried it out – I’ve been relying on Oly’s excellent 5-axis stablisation in the OM-D, although at some point I reckon I’ll give it a go.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the results which this lens is capable of. I intend to test it out a great deal more, especially in low-light situations. I picked it up with the intention of using it as a low-light lens for events, and that’s what I’ll post about more when once I’ve given it a good go. In the meantime, here are a couple more sample images… Let me know what you think.. . . read more

That's a whole train of wide angle mirrorless system lenses, and it seems the caboose* has derailed somehow, pretty soft and fringy compared to the other 3, BUT it was used with a GH3, not the best of combinations. Kudos to Sony to make such a sharp wideangle (used with a NEX-5R) zoom lens, they had a slow start but seem to have begun catching up by now. As for the Fujinon xf 14mm (mounted on the X-E1), it performs as expected, very sharp with no visible Chromatic Aberrations. The PanaLeica 7-14mm falls a bit behind, but it is the oldest lens of the bunch, by a wide (heh) margin. Click on the image for the full thing. For those daring enough to delve through the Google translated text, here's a snip: . . . read more